Film-makers of the 50's and early 60's feasted on the adventure novels of Jules Verne for family entertainment features. This was one I hadn't seen or even heard of before and was pleasantly surprised to see in the titles the involvement of two Hollywood background- greats, namely Hitchcock's composer Bernard Herrman and stop-animation special effects wizard Ray Harryhausen. They both bring plenty to the party here.
The story of course is utterly fantastical from the start when Yankee captain Michael Craig and his small gang of men escape their Confederate prison and clamber into a hot-air balloon in a howling storm to make their escape. Cue the requisite "Please help me, I'm falling" refrain as successive crew members naturally find themselves falling out of the dirigible usually by one hand only to be rescued by colleagues with the strength of Stretch Armstrong.
Of course they're blown across the heavens and end up on Captain Nemo's last outpost, a small Pacific island, where massive everyday creatures like bees, birds and crabs, reared by Nemo, are the main threats to life. By the skin of their teeth, they survive to the final race against-the-clock climax to the backdrop of an erupting volcano.
I've not read the source novel (though I will, I'm a fan of Verne's) so can't speak for the film staying true to the tale, but as a fantastic tale it's a fun watch. Some of it is downright silly, for one thing you'd hardly expect to find a young Victorian damsel running about in a micro mini-skirt and for another when you see how the rebel confederates somehow miss shooting down the rather large airborne balloon at short range, you can easily understand how they lost the war.
On the plus side, though, Harryhausen's monster creations are brilliant for the times, Hermann's varied soundtrack is effective and Herbert Lom follows aptly in James Mason's large footprints as the suave, pacifist genius Nemo.
This is fine Saturday afternoon fare and even if it seems to end in a hurry, lovers of light, action-packed adventure movies could fare worse than being shipwrecked on this particular island.
The story of course is utterly fantastical from the start when Yankee captain Michael Craig and his small gang of men escape their Confederate prison and clamber into a hot-air balloon in a howling storm to make their escape. Cue the requisite "Please help me, I'm falling" refrain as successive crew members naturally find themselves falling out of the dirigible usually by one hand only to be rescued by colleagues with the strength of Stretch Armstrong.
Of course they're blown across the heavens and end up on Captain Nemo's last outpost, a small Pacific island, where massive everyday creatures like bees, birds and crabs, reared by Nemo, are the main threats to life. By the skin of their teeth, they survive to the final race against-the-clock climax to the backdrop of an erupting volcano.
I've not read the source novel (though I will, I'm a fan of Verne's) so can't speak for the film staying true to the tale, but as a fantastic tale it's a fun watch. Some of it is downright silly, for one thing you'd hardly expect to find a young Victorian damsel running about in a micro mini-skirt and for another when you see how the rebel confederates somehow miss shooting down the rather large airborne balloon at short range, you can easily understand how they lost the war.
On the plus side, though, Harryhausen's monster creations are brilliant for the times, Hermann's varied soundtrack is effective and Herbert Lom follows aptly in James Mason's large footprints as the suave, pacifist genius Nemo.
This is fine Saturday afternoon fare and even if it seems to end in a hurry, lovers of light, action-packed adventure movies could fare worse than being shipwrecked on this particular island.